Priest appeals for stolen hearse items

A parish priest has issued an appeal to the robber who stole a mobile phone and coffin clamp from a hearse in Derry.

The Londonderry based funeral director has a phone stolen and a clamp that keeps the coffin in place in the hearse taken from a vehicle as it sat outside a church, reports Belfast Telegraph. 

The thief took the items as a funeral mass was being held in St Mary’s Church.

Fr Joseph Gormley said: “We just want to get the items back. We want to put it out there that if the person wants to leave the items back, they can leave them in a confessional box in the church.”

Undertaker Willie O’Brien said: “When my undertakers brought the coffin back out to the hearse after the funeral they discovered that the clamp to hold the coffin in place had been stolen. It was a metal clamp, it looks like silver. Perhaps someone thought it was worth something, but it is for hearses, so it would be no good to anybody.

“When my staff looked in the front of the hearse they discovered that one of the men’s phones was also missing.

“We didn’t lock the hearse outside the church. You don’t ever think you need to. Whoever did this was very disrespectful to the grieving family and also to themselves.”